Footloose.

Review #1690: Footloose.

Cast: 

Kevin Bacon (Ren McCormack), Lori Singer (Ariel Moore), Dianne Wiest (Vi Moore), John Lithgow (Rev. Shaw Moore), Chris Penn (Willard Hewitt), Sarah Jessica Parker (Rusty), John Laughlin (Woody), Elizabeth Gorcey (Wendy Jo), Frances Lee McCain (Ethel McCormack), Jim Youngs (Chuck Cranston), and Timothy Scott (Andy Beamis) Directed by Herbert Ross (#244 - The Sunshine Boys and #1455 - The Goodbye Girl)

Review: 

It it hard to say a movie is inevitable. And yet, this is one of the most obvious movies that one will ever glare at in their lives, not so much because it is memorably great or terrible, but because one just has the feeling that they will watch it at some point in time. This is a long and dull way of saying I knew I would have to do this movie because I once had to practice dancing to the title song of this movie for a sweet sixteen birthday party...nine years ago. Trust me, time has not withered the memory of having to hear that Kenny Loggins song over and over again, and I say this as someone who digs the singer, even for a movie that is inferior to other movies with Loggins doing the lead song (well, there is Caddyshack II, but pretend that doesn't exist). You may be interested to know that the film was written by Dean Pitchford, who had won an Academy Award for his song-writing with the title song to Fame (1980). He had been inspired by a news story he had heard in 1979 that involved Elmore City, Oklahoma, a town that had just eliminated a ban on dancing that lasted 80 years. He would ultimately co-write ten of the thirteen songs present in the soundtrack, which included singers such as Loggins, Bonnie Tyler, and Sammy Hager. Strangely, the first director in mind to direct this movie was Michael Cimino (fresh off the production fiasco of Heaven's Gate (1980), if you remember). No, seriously, he was hired in 1983 before filming was to start. This occurred due to stalled negotiations with Herbert Ross (a director familiar with dance since he had done choreography on films and Broadway before taking on directing in 1969), but the demands that Cimino would put on pre-production ended up in his dismissal. Specifically, he wanted $250,000 for the script to be re-written in order to make it darker (as quoted by a producer, who stated that they wanted to make entertainment, and it probably doesn't help to go over a budget when you have just $7.5 million to spend). I will admit that while The Deer Hunter (1978) wasn't exactly a great favorite of mine, I would certainly have been interested to see just what Cimino would have done with his type of polish involved instead of what we received instead.

So yeah, I guess this is a movie for the teens. At least I think so, if one wants to have a movie filled with a grab-bag of 80s songs like a music video (the jury's out on pairing Bonnie Tyler's "Holding Out for a Hero" with a game of chicken with tractors), or maybe it's supposed to be a teen drama, filled with oddballs that have to deal with the terrible task of no dancing or rock music in a small town with a gymnast for a lead character. Or maybe it is the classic teenage hokum movie (small town folks, let me know if you've ever seen a truck with deer antlers on it). Teenagers doing bits of gymnastics in a warehouse? Sure, go ahead, and add a secret place full of graffiti of forbidden words put there by kids that even includes a daredevil who likes pulling dumb stunts like standing on the train tracks with a train ahead (that opening stunt is a crock, because I actually thought that would be the impetus for the whole "dancing/rock music leads to debauchery and maybe death", just look at that car...nah, it just gets told to us later). By the time folks start to think about burning books, my eyes were already on their fifth cycle of rolling (how the focus goes from rejecting an offer to do a prom to books in the library are harming the children is up to you). At least the parents don't start to use the mountains in the background (filmed in Utah, where else?) for watchtowers. Technically speaking, there is an interesting drama that is just begging to play itself out (albeit one with maybe four or five actors present, not the handful here), but even Saturday Night Fever (1977) manages to dance circles around this movie, and the weirdest thing is that both movies have pretty good performances from the lead actor. Clearly the movie has made an interesting fit for some folks when it comes to its era and mood, but it just didn't click with me. I never really found much to care about in its attempts at balancing music and its plot, because it all reaches with the depth of a marshmallow, equating to a book report about why folks should be allowed to express themselves (in other words, Saturday Night Fever wasn't merely a disco movie, and Footloose isn't merely anything). Bacon (whose first prominent film role was with Diner two years prior alongside a handful of stage work) is the best presence in the movie, mostly because he handles everything with composed charisma. In a movie where he has to play the fish-out-of-water from Chicago that deals with odd yokels and friends with dance, he makes sure to play it on key, because he sells what needs to happen on his end with no trouble because of his energy. Singer fares less than great, probably because the whole daredevil attitude is probably the most interesting thing about her character, and we are talking about someone who gets to share time with Bacon and Lithgow, which means one gets to be overshadowed twice. Wiest has a few moments to share with Lithgow that compliments the adult perspective of trying to deal with a growing adolescent. Lithgow is the other side of the interesting coin, devout in his composure that acts like a parent of a community, which naturally has to shift in layers for 110 minutes (albeit not a complete 180), which works okay. Penn plays a sturdy folksy relief character (one who can't dance, but come on, that hasn't stopped dummies like me from trying) - he soon would become better known with comic / tough roles, and this is a moderately curious early role for him. This was the second film role for Parker (familiar with theater and television from a young age); those brief moments on screen are enough for a positive sentence, for what it is worth. As a whole, Footloose is cheese that has the kind of polish that can satisfy those who find its sweet spot to their liking, whether because of the music, the charm of its lead (or Lithgow), one that has a little bit of what counts in expressing oneself that might just prove enough in entertainment. I can't endorse it, but I also can't stop one from having the curiosity to seek what all the fuss is about.

Overall, I give it 6 out of 10 stars.